Another magnate will soar into space this month. Jeff Bezos, best known as the founder of Amazon, will launch July 20 on board a crewed New Shepard, built by his company, Blue Origin. The passengers will include Oliver Daemen (18) and former “Mercury Thirteen” candidate Wally Funk (82), who will become, respectively, the youngest and oldest people in space to date.
Details below.
I’m here to help.
Who are you? Are you a priest?
No ma’am. I’m the real estate guy.
The Roman Real Estate Agency deals with haunted (or “stigmatized”—they don’t like the “h” word) properties. Since supernatural doings seriously affect the value of the property, they either clear up issues that aren’t otherworldly, or clean up those that are.
Superman recalls his emergence as a superhero, and then confronts Tal-Rho. Lois contacts Steel– but will he save Superman, or help destroy him?
An Arrowverse character puts in a guest appearance.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson will launch Sunday, July 11 at 9am 10:30 EST aboard the VSS Unity, the first Virgin Galactic flight to carry a full crew. The event, intended in part to show the viability of space tourism, will go full media circus, with Stephen Colbert hosting and Khalid debuting a new song at the landing site.
Director Richard Donner has died. He was 91 years old.
Most people here will know Donner for directing Superman (1978), the film that proved a big-budget superhero movie could reach the adults as well as the kids, and for his involvement with the Lethal Weapon franchise. His long history behind the camera also includes The Goonies and episodes of several genre series, including The Six Million Dollar Man, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and The Twilight Zone— most notably “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
In the late sixties, he introduced a generation of kids to the style of the old movie serials with Danger Island. Made for The Banana Splits, it ran in installments during the first season and was rerun in its entirety during subsequent seasons.
Rest in Peace.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
–Theseus (V.i.7-8)
Two years ago I reviewed two film productions here of Shakespeare’s fantasy-filled play A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935, 1999). I even suggested that, given the sheer number of adaptations, it might become a midsummer tradition.
We missed last year, but…. Yeah, last year. Let’s try again, with a 1968 production that brings Diana Rigg (likely best-known to Bureau-cats for her roles in Avengers and Game of Thrones), Helen Mirren, Ian Holm (Bilbo to you), Judi Dench (many roles, but if you’re here, you likely thought of M), Paul Rogers, and nudity to Shakespeare’s comedy.
Greek mythology, faeries, magic, lovers young and old, and a well-meaning troupe of dubious actors await you.
Jordan learns that having superpowers is nothing to sneeze at, while an alien invasion threatens the Smallville High talent show.
The conflict with Morgan Edge comes to a temporary conclusion in a rather rushed and silly manner.
I don’t normally repost from my author blog, but this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day.
“Are you out of your mind? You don’t go snooping around the guy from another world’s murder van!”
Superman faces actual life-threatening danger. The Captain Luthor arc ends for now, but a larger threat looms.
Meanwhile, on Smallville: The Next Generation, The Cushing Family drama intensifies as the Kent boys leave football behind and Lois sees a therapist.
Paul Soles has died. The Canadian broadcaster and the voice of several 1960s cartoons, including Hermey the Elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Bruce Banner and Rick Jones in the ultra-low-budget Marvel Superheroes Hulk cartoon, and Peter Parker in the famously-themed Ralph Bakshi-produced Spider-man cartoon, was ninety.